


Now Entering: Reality

by doritoarts



Category: Friday Night Funkin' (Video Game), Pico's School (Video Game)
Genre: ANOES references, Friendship, Gen, Guns, I'm not saying it's not allowed to be this specifically just isnt a ship fic lol, Magic, Not a ship, at least i think they do, boyfriend has adhd in this, boyfriend is named jackie, girlfriend is named addie, i mighta gotten a few details on it wrong bc im too pretty to play it or watch someone play it, im a teen i should know this lol, like noticably, senpai gets a happy ending, the characters talk like actual teens/young adults, the events of picos schools are referenced
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29348511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doritoarts/pseuds/doritoarts
Summary: Boyfriend invites Pico over to deconstruct a game called Seppun Seppun High School 3, not knowing Pico's already done so in the past. Pico comes over anyway, wanting to show Boyfriend how the game works.Pico sees something - someONE - that doesn't belong there.
Relationships: Gamestoppers, Senpai & Pico & Boyfriend
Comments: 4
Kudos: 163





	Now Entering: Reality

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick note: the "-" in senpai's dialogue basically means a new textbox. [Like this! - you get what I mean?]
> 
> I banged this out in 5 days and that's that on hyperfixation

“Ayo, I’m here. Open up.” 

“Pico!” Jackie was positively elated, rushing to open the door of his apartment as soon as he could. “You’re here!” Pico nodded, stepping inside Jackie’s mess of an apartment and letting out a whistle as he looked around. Clothes and other various items were strewn all over the floor, but the place didn’t look anything close to unsanitary, thankfully. The closest thing to trash was some unwashed Tupperware that, from, the looks of it, once contained pistachios. “I have the  _ coolest _ damn thing to show you, man, it’s great!” He flapped his arms excitedly, making happy beeping noises. Pico smiled. 

“You’re excited about this, ain’tcha? You said it was your room, right?” 

“Yeah! It’s in my uh, my, my uh,” Jackie fumbled for the right word, “My room! Yeah, my room! Lemme show you.” He led Pico around the clutter among the floor, and to a door with polaroid pictures of Jackie with various people plastered on it. Jackie put his hand on the doorknob and ever-so-gently opened the door. 

Sitting on his desk was a CRT television, hooked up to a Maystation. “Addie gave me a copy of a dating sim she likes, I know you like dissecting games and stuff, so I thought you’d wanna look at it!” Pico chuckled and gave Jackie a brief fist-bump. 

“Dude, nice!” Pico gestured to the T.V., “Yanno, the pioneers used to decompile these babies for hours!” He joked. “For real though, I can’t  _ wait _ to root through this thing and see what makes it tick.” 

Jackie giggled, flapping his hands in excitement, “Well, c’mon, then! Let’s get started! I’ll make popcorn!” Before Pico could reply, he rushed to the kitchen. Pico sighed, sitting down at Jackie’s desk and picking up the game. He examined the case.  _ Seppun Seppun High School 3 _ . Pico had already dissected this game, but he’d never told Jackie about it, thankfully. Even if he wasn’t going to find something he hadn’t already seen, he’d have a tremendous time explaining it all to Jackie. He popped the disk into the Maystation just as Jackie returned with popcorn. 

“I’m back! You’re not starting without me, right?” 

“Nah, I’m not, don’t worry, man. Just gettin’ the game booted up.” Jackie nodded, handing Pico a bowl of popcorn, “Hell yeah, dude! Thanks.” He shoved a handful of popcorn in his mouth, picking up the controller. With the press of a button, a happy-looking start screen booted up. Pico pressed the button to load a save, picking a file with not a lot of progress on it, only the tutorial completed. “Aight, let’s see what we got.” Jackie grabbed an extra chair, sitting himself down next to Pico. Within a moment, the game switched from an (admittedly quite pretty) loading screen to actual gameplay.    
  
[“Hello there! It’s a joy to meet you. - My name is Senpai, at least, that’s what everyone else calls me, haha.”] A pretty boy, in glorious 16-bit pixel art, greeted a very puzzled Pico. [“Are you new here? I’ve never seen you around before. - I can give you a tour if you’d like! - I’m  _ very  _ popular, after all. I can introduce you to everyone!”] Pico stared at the screen, confused and somewhat unnerved. Jackie was quick to catch on.

“You good, Pico?” Pico jumped a bit, before turning to him and smiling.    
  
“Oh, shit, yea. I’m good. It’s just, I own a copy of Seppun 3 and I’ve never seen this fuckin’ dude before. I decompiled the game and everything. I was gonna show you how the game worked, but…” 

“But what?”

Pico paused, “Hold up, Jackie, I gotta try somethin’.” 

Pico pointed his gun at the T.V. 

[“HEY, HEY! PUT THE GUN DOWN, WE CAN TALK THIS OVER!”] There was a pause, then Pico burst into a fit of laughter, slowly lowering the gun. He had no intention of using it, he never wanted to use it again, but god, pointing it at that prettyboy was  _ hilarious. _ “I knew it, I fuckin’ knew it! You don’t belong in the game at all, do you?” Senpai went from horrified to huffy, crossing his arms and glowering. 

[“Go eat shit, fucker, that wasn’t fucking funny!”] Pico just laughed more.    
  
“You’re right, it was hilarious.” 

[“Fuck you!”] Pico chuckled again, before softening a bit.    
  
“Seriously, you don’t belong here, do you? Do you wanna be in there?” 

[“No, I don’t! I’ve been sealed in here for so long! - I don’t know what magic  _ he _ used, but it’s strong shit. - This place is driving me crazy, nothing feels real, I want out!”]

Jackie peered over Pico’s shoulder, curious as to what exactly was happening. “What’s goin’ on? Why did you point your gun at the tv?” Senpai glared daggers into Jackie. His face was shadowed over, anger sparked in his eyes. 

[“ **You.** \- How  _ dare _ you rear your head around me again, after all you’ve done to me! - I swear, when I get out of here, I’ll grab you by the neck and - EEP!”] Pico had pointed the gun at him again.    
  
“Not. Another. Fuckin’. Word.” He stared down Senpai, “How about we make a deal, pal? I know why you’re angry. I’ve been there. The offer is simple. I let you out, and if you try to hurt either of us, I shoot.” Senpai nodded, still terrified. Pico lowered the gun. “Good.” He turned to Jackie, “I need you to get candles, lavender, and an eyeshadow palette. You’ve got all of that here, right?” 

“Yessir.” Jackie saluted him jokingly before leaving to go find everything needed. Once he was gone, Pico turned back to Senpai. 

[“What are you looking at? - Gonna point that gun at me again? Or are you going to gloat?”]

Pico sighed, his gaze softening, “You gotta name?”

[“I already told you, it’s Senpai.”]

“No, I mean your  _ name _ name.”   
  
[“I don’t remember. Senpai is the best I’ll get. - I’ve been forgetting things.”]

“Had a hunch.” Pico paused, “What are you?” 

[“I’m… not sure. - I don’t think I’m human anymore, but I can’t give you anything specific. - I’m pretty sure I’m not dead, at least… thankfully.”] He paused, [“I want to apologize for getting so violent with… Jackie, you said his name was? - Our first meeting did not leave us on good terms.”]

“What happened?” 

[“… - My face tore open.”] Pico blinked a few times, shocked. Whatever answer he expected, it certainly wasn’t that.

“I- Jesus fuckin’ christ dude, that sounds horrible.” Senpai didn’t reply. 

Silence. Pico didn’t know how to or if he should fill it. He said nothing. All remained silent for a while, the only sound in the room being the relaxed music of the game itself. They both waited, until…    
  
“Yo, Pico! I got everything.” There was Jackie, chipper as ever. 

“A’ight.” Pico turned to the television, “You ready, Sen?”

Sen. Pico had called him Sen. 

Senpai was no stranger to nicknames, but this, this was special. It wasn’t one of the silly pet names his “classmates” had given him because they were programmed to, it was real. An actual show of trust. 

It felt nice.    
  
“Sen? You good?” 

Senpai snapped back to attention [“Ah, right! Ahem. - I’m ready as I’ll ever be… if that counts for something!”]

“I take that as ready enough.” Pico began crushing up eyeshadow with a nearby mechanical pencil he removed the eraser from. “This shouldn’t take too long,” he said, mixing the shadow with the lavender, “Just a good ol’ D-I-Y breaker of dark magic seals.”   
  
Jackie tilted his head, “How’d you know it was dark magic.”    
  
“I’ve had… experience, with dark magic.” Pico shuddered, before continuing to set up the ritual, “I’m not goin’ into detail, just know I know my shit.” Jackie nodded, satisfied, while Pico lit the candles. “Alright, everything’s in place. Les’ go.” Pico moved Jackie’s chair away from the desk, clearing out the floor in front of it. “Can you move back, Jackie? I gotta chant.”    
  
“Got it!” Jackie stepped back toward his dresser, well out of the way of Pico and the desk. Pico took a deep breath. 

“Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis. Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis.” 

Senpai could feel a tingling sensation in his fingertips. Something was being lifted.

“Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis. Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis.” 

The tingling felt stronger, Senpai was overcome with an indescribable emotion. Blueish light surrounded the T.V. 

“Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis. Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis.”    
  
The light grew brighter.   
  
“Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis. Mendenum Absolello Mendictus Depresotis!” 

The light became blinding for a moment, and as quick as it appeared, it was gone. Pico paused. “You can leave now.” 

[Ah! I suppose, er. - I suppose I should do that now. - … How do I do that?”]

“Just fuckin’ crawl out. Like that movie with the V.H.S.,” Senpai nodded and hesitantly reached out to the T.V. screen. 

His fingertips went through the fourth wall. 

Senpai gasped, flinching back. He quickly shook the feeling off and steeled himself, shoving his hand through the tv. It burned, but he needed to keep going, this was his chance. From the outside, it looked like something straight out of The Ring. Senpai, shakily crawling out of the T.V., hair in his face. It was terrifying until he fell onto the floor, flat on his face. 

He looked far,  _ far _ more disastrous in the real world than in the game. His hair, ok-looking from a distance, was greasy and tangled up close, his clothes were dull, and as he looked up, dazed from the experience, dark rings lined his undereyes. He shielded his face from the light of Jackie’s room. 

Truth be told, he felt like he was burning up. Senpai was so used to cold sharp pixels, he had forgotten what the real world felt like. Waiting for all the little feelings he took for granted to stop being overwhelming was the most worthwhile wait of his life. For the burning heat of his own body to turn into a gentle warmth, for the feeling of air going into his lungs and his skin on the carpet to go from grating to gentle, for the clothes on his skin to start feeling as soft and comfortable as they were supposed to be. For his body to finally remember what being alive was. 

Senpai hugged himself tightly, happier than he'd ever been in his life. The bits and pieces of memory he didn't lose to time spent in that wretched land of pixels all resonating happily because this, he knew for a fact, was what being alive felt like, and oh, how he missed it. He giggled, almost childishly in just how  _ giddy _ it was, not caring about how idiotic he looked in front of Jackie and Pico. And for the first time in years, he spoke. Truly spoke, using his own throat and everything. His true voice was hoarse from lack of use but it was his and that was all that truly mattered. So, he spoke joyously, relief and delight in his tone and expression. 

"I'm real again."

♫♪.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.♫♪

Movies… Movies were nice, Senpai concluded. He was half asleep on the couch, his hair still damp from the shower he’d taken. Thankfully, Jackie loaned him some pajamas until he could get his hands on some for himself. He was watching some slasher movie with Jackie and Pico, not really following the plot. From what Pico had said, it was about some creep in a sweater invading teenager’s dreams and murdering them in increasingly gimmicky ways. It was fun, at least. Senpai yawned. 

He closed his eyes, snuggling up to a soft, heart-shaped throw pillow. He could rest now, he earned it. 

Senpai drifted off to sleep, and, for the first time in years, all was well. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this! Comments are always appreciated, I put a lotta heart into my writing and feedback makes my day, I really mean it.


End file.
